China has denounced the Nobel Prize committee in Norway for awarding this year's peace prize to Liu Xiaobo, a jailed Chinese rights activist.

Authorities in Beijing said awarding the "criminal" Liu ran contrary to the principles of the award, and warned ties with Norway would suffer as a result. The government also summoned the Norwegian ambassador in China to protest against the committee's decision.

"This is an obscenity against the peace prize," Ma Zhaoxu, a foreign ministry spokesman, said in an official statement.

Earlier on Friday, Thorbjoern Jagland, the Nobel Committee chairman, announced the award in Norway's capital, Oslo, saying Liu was a symbol for the fight for human rights in China.

"China has become a big power in economic terms as well as political terms, and it is normal that big powers should be under criticism,'' he said.

Liu is in prison for helping to organise and disseminate a document called Charter 08, which calls for sweeping political reforms in China, including freedom of assembly, expression and religion. The 54-year-old literary critic and former professor was sentenced last Christmas Day to 11 years in jail for subversion.

"So any decision made by the committee should not be seen as an official reaction or comment on what's going on [in China]," Ragnhild Imerslund, a spokeswoman for the ministry, told Al Jazeera.

Imerslund said it was "normal in diplomacy" for Chinese officials to contact Norwegian diplomats.

"The meeting was conducted in a constructive tone and we emphasised ... that Norway is eager to continue bilateral relations with China," she said.

'Chinese warnings'

Jonas Gahr Stoere, the Norwegian foreign minister, earlier emphasised that the award should not cause a hostile Chinese reaction.

"There are no grounds to direct any measures against Norway as a country, and I think it would have a negative effect on China's reputation if it did," he told the Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

Reacting to the award, France, Germany and Taiwan's main opposition party urged China to free Liu.

The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1989 but is seen as a traitor by China because of his struggle for a more autonomous Tibet, congratulated Liu and called for his release.

Liu has called for the reform of China's one-party Communist system and was jailed for 21 months for taking part in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

In 1996, he served another three years in a "re-education" camp for seeking the release of prisoners jailed in the Tiananmen demonstrations.

Jagland, the Nobel Committee chairman, said Liu had become a symbol for the struggle for human rights in China.

"The campaign to establish universal human rights also in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad," he said.

"Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China."

Vincent Brossel, head of the Asia desk at Reporters Without Borders, told Al Jazeera that Liu deserved the award because "he's a very peaceful advocate of freedom of expression and democracy". He added that Liu is a unique representative of the struggle between dictatorship and democracy.

"Xiaobo is a gentle and brave person, he will probably give away the award to all political prisoners in China and all over the world," Brossel, who has met Liu several times, said.

Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan, reporting from Beijing, said Liu is well known in China.

"Most people in China actually know his name. The thing with Chinese human rights activists is that they tend to be known outside their country more than they're known inside their country, because of the censorship issues for example," she said.

"But Liu was a prominent writer before he became an activist.

"Not only is he known in the intelligentsia and the academic world. His political manifesto, Charter 08, has picked up more than 10,000 signatures and these Chinese who have signed on to this charter say they are from all walks of life."

Never sought fame

Nicholas Bequelin, senior Asia researcher with Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that even though Liu is imprisoned, "he will be comforted when he learns about it (the prize), but it won't really change him".

Bequelin described Liu as "someone who is ready to go to prison for his ideas and he knew it when he signed this document, this Charter 08 ... he has never sought international fame".

Bequelin said that Liu was likely awarded the prize because he "really stands for all the activists and political prisoners in China. He really represents every single one of them because his key struggle has been for freedom of expression and freedom of expression is the basis of any advocacy and any efforts towards greater human rights protection".

At least four former peace prize winners - Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, the Dalai Lama and the Czech politician Vaclav Havel - had been among those calling for Liu to get the Peace Prize.

Barack Obama, the US president, has also called for Liu's release.

Wife 'excited'

After hearing about Liu's award, his wife thanked his supporters and called for his release.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates

2009:

Barack Obama, US president

2008:

Martti Ahtisaari, former Finish president and peace mediator

2007:

Al Gore, US politician and climate activist, shared the prize with the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change

2006:

Muhammad Yunus shares the prize with the Grameen Bank he founded, providing loans to the rural poor of Bangladesh

2005:

Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, shares the prize with the International Atomic Energy Agency

"I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I don't know what to say," Liu Xia told the news agency AFP.

"I strongly ask that the Chinese government release Liu Xiaobo."

Before the official announcement on Friday, Liu had been the advance favourite in the guessing-game for the award.

This year, the Nobel Committee considered a record 237 individuals and organisations for the prestigious prize.

The Nobel prizes were established by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite, and were first handed out in 1901.

According to Nobel's will, the peace prize should be given to the person who "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

The award of $1.5m will be handed out in Oslo on December 10, while the other Nobel prize ceremonies are held in Sweden, in line with the founder's wishes. Sweden and Norway were joined in a union during his lifetime.

The Norwegian parliament appoints the five voting members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects the laureate for the Peace prize.

Each year, the committee invites qualified people to submit nominations for the prize.